Crime

The use of fentanyl and even George Floyd's BMI are both factors in his death, but since Floyd had a high tolerance for Fentanyl, it was a non-lethal dose.

It's also the case that Derek Chauvin and the other police who had experience and who had been educated on how to handle drug addicts and the arrests of those resisting should have had the know-how to handle this. In fact, they did, they were just grossly negligent resulting in a dereliction of duty.

The big issue is that Floyd was handcuffed and no longer posed a threat, but he kept him in this position for something like two minutes after he lost consciousness, when he had known that this hold could potentially cause positional asphyxia...

I would even speculate that had Chauvin done everything the same but taken his knee off Floyd shortly after he stopped struggling and tried to render medical aid with Floyd still dying, this would not have been a national news story, and Chauvin would have faced far lesser charges concerning Floyd's death. So, the real focal point for me was the callous disregard for the health of Floyd...

Now, one thing in your favor, I think, is that Minnesota law classified this all as Second Degree Murder instead of some form of manslaughter, which I think better describes the circumstances. Call me autistic, call me crazy, call me whatever you will, but these sorts of classifications of crime are important to me. How we call a thing is what we know it by, after all.